This application claims the priority of Swiss Application No. 2000 0608/00 filed Mar. 29, 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,838 describes an apparatus for packaging stacked, flat items (potato chips) into tubular packaging containers. In this apparatus a continuous flow of items is advanced to a downwardly inclined, pivotal trough. Item stacks are formed by means of two, alternatingly upward shifted separator lances arranged spaced from one another above the trough. The separated stacks slide into respective tubes which are arranged as wheel spokes and which are rotatable as a unit. As soon as a tube is filled, the tube assembly is incrementally rotated by one step about a horizontal axis. A tubular packaging container having a closed bottom is pulled over the filled tube in a subsequent station. As the tube assembly continues to rotate, the filled packaging container is deposited in a standing orientation on a removing conveyor belt.
Since the items are first deposited in a tube and then the container is inserted over the tube, the container has to have a greater diameter than necessary for receiving the items. It is a further disadvantage of such a prior art arrangement that when the item stack slides into the tube, the leading items of the stack are likely to tilt which may lead to operational disturbances because then only insufficient space is available in the tube for the entire stack. Also, for this reason, underweight packages may result which must be rejected as waste.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved apparatus of the above-outlined type from which the discussed disadvantages are eliminated.
This object and others to become apparent as the specification progresses, are accomplished by the invention, according to which, briefly stated, the apparatus for charging containers with a flat item stack includes a supply conveyor; intermediate containers; and a transporting device carrying the intermediate containers into first and second stations. In the first station an item stack is loaded from the supply conveyor into the intermediate container, and in the second station an item stack is loaded from the intermediate container into a packaging container supported in the second station. A device rotates each intermediate container about an axis perpendicular to the advancing direction of the items on the supply conveyor from a first angular position into a second angular position and then back into the first angular position during travel of the intermediate container from the first station into the second station and back into the first station. A removing device in the second station carries away a filled packaging container.